Column: Reflections on year's stories

Lt. Jay Steinke of the Appleton Police Department gives a hug to Lindsay Kastner as she talks about health issues with her family as he patrols College Avenue in Appleton, Wis., Saturday night, October 3, 2015, into the early hours of Sunday morning. The walk brings Steinke into contact with the public, many who have developed an appreciation over the years for the way he deals with people.
Ron Page/Post-Crescent Media
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Appleton police Lt. Jay Steinke rarely makes it through a bar — or even a few steps down College Avenue — without being recognized and stopped while on weekend patrols. "That (expletive) renewed my faith in police officers," one patron told Steinke's fellow officer, Capt. Larry Potter, on a recent Sunday morning patrol.

John Wallschlaeger, a mental health pioneer, retired from the Appleton Police Department. With his retirement came the creation of a separate team of eight officers trained in crisis intervention who are paired with community members with mental health challenges.

A then-15-year-old boy was charged in the death of a 13-year-old boy in Wausau. He was charged in the adult system with first-degree reckless homicide. This story looked at how much his sentence could differ depending on whether his case stayed in the adult court system or moved to juvenile court.